COURSE WORK RESIT SEPT 2012 KEY ISSUES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT CRN 28176 Email Address: ki@basden.demon.co.uk ** Please note: In some countries 'assignment' refers to unmarked material, but here 'assignment' refers to work that is marked and contributes to your degree mark. This work is marked as as though it is an exam. ** 1. INTRODUCTION: THE TWO ASSIGNMENTS The module 'Key Issues in Information Systems Development' has no examination. Instead, the assessment involves two written assignments. Assignment 1 is an aspectual analysis of a topic in ISD. Assignment 2 discusses how you can apply what you have learned in the module. Each assignment contributes 50% of the final mark. 1.1 Deadlines » Both assignments are to be submitted no later than the standard resit deadline. You may submit either assignment earlier if you wish. 1.2 The Difference About Masters Assignments Please see Appendix 1 for an analogy that one student found useful. Important: Masters assignments are not like an undergraduate exam. In an undergraduate exam you might get marks for writing down correctly what was in the lectures, because an undergraduate exam is partly a test of memory and retention. But an assignment at masters level is a test of your ability to think for yourself. So in Masters assignments, especially in this module, you are expected to write down the results of your own thinking, NOT the content of the lectures. You will gain marks for original thinking that is of good quality. You will NOT gain marks for material that I find elsewhere unless that material is enclosed in "double quotation marks" and the source of the material is given as a reference. (See below for how to reference.) ASSIGNMENT 1: ASPECTUAL ANALYSIS This assignment contributes 50% of the marks the student will receive for the module. Since this is a resit, the assignment is undertaken individually. The deliverable from this assignment is a report resulting from undertaking an aspectual analysis. The educational aim of this assignment is to give the student practical experience of aspectual analysis of some issue in ISD and reporting on that analysis. The object of the assignment is to use Dooyeweerd's aspects to analyse the advice or expertise in a textbook on some part of information systems development. The Research Choose one of the following books (which are in the library, and the class mark is given): Books on Orchestrating ISD: » Development of Business Information Systems. Ronald Gordon Anderson. #65.012 1cp » Information Systems Development: A flexible framework. British Computer Society Working Party. #658.4038011/inf 1cp Books on Anticipating Use: » Requirements Analysis and System Design. L.A. Maciaszek [2001]. #005.12/mac 1cp » User Centred Information Design for Improving Software ... Pradeep Henry [1998]. #004.019/hen 1cp Books on Creating the IS: » Software Engineering for Information Systems. Donald C. McDermid [1990]. #005.12/mac 1cp » Creating Web Pages for Dummies. Bud Smith [2002]. #005.82/smi. 1cp Books on Knowledge Acquisition: » Computer Game Design Course - Principles, Practice and Techniques for ... Jim Thompson [2007]. #894.81526/tho. 1cp » Developing Serious Games. Brian P. Bergerou [2005]. #794.84526/ber. 2cp Read parts of the book (the student must decide which parts are read by which members). For those parts, I recommend that you should do the following. See below for an example. » Find 16 short pieces of text, from 2-4 lines long, which give advice about one of the activities of ISD: » Advice about The Overall Whole Project » Advice about Anticipating Use » Advice about Knowledge Acquisition » Advice about Creating the IS and identify which of the above it refers to. For each passage: » Copy out the words of the passage in quotation marks with its page number. (NOTE: Please be assured, this copying out is NOT plagiarism, since I am asking you to do it and doing so is part of the work of the assignment.) » Identify which ISD activity it gives advice about. Explain why you believe it is this activity. » Identify which aspects it is giving advice about, and write a short discussion of what advice it gives about functioning in these aspects. Explain why you believe it is for these aspects. Study the Dooyeweerd Pages http://www.dooy.info/aspects.html to help you. Here is an example: --- Start of example Passage 1. Page 4: "Good database design means that you take time to plan your database before you put it into use. It means that you focus on the way your business works and tailor that database to your own organization's applications." This is mainly about the whole project, because it is telling us how to plan the major tasks of the project (focus, plan, put into use, etc.). But it also mentions other ISD activities as part of this overall plan, including creating the IS ("design") anticipating use ("focus on the way your business works"). Aspects: » The main message of this passage is that we should plan. This is formative aspect. » "Focus" is analytic aspect because it is distinguishing between what is important and what is not. » 'Business' refers to economic aspect, but this is only secondary. » Likewise 'organization' refers to social aspect but again this is only secondary. --- end of example » After doing this for 16 passages, discuss which aspects are most meaningful to the author of the chosen book, and why they might be most meaningful to them. Discuss which aspects are not present (not meaningful) and why this might be. To do these, you might find it useful to count up the aspects and draw up a bar chart. Whatever you do, explain what you are doing. Deliverable for Assignment 1 You should deliver one copy of Assignment 1 to each of the following: » paper copy, printed double-sided, to the Assignment Submission Box » electronic copy to the email address given at the start » electronic copy via Turnitin. The following is the Contents I expect. (Between them, sections 1 - 4 should contain analysis of 16 passages.) 1. Aspectual Analysis of Whole Project In this section collect together all the passages you found about Overall Whole Project, if any. 2. Aspectual Analysis of Anticipating Use In this section collect together all the passages you found about Anticipating Use (including user requirements analysis), if any. 3. Aspectual Analysis of Knowledge Acquisition In this section collect together all the passages you found about Knowledge Acquisition, if any. 4. Aspectual Analysis of Creating the IS In this section collect together all the passages you found about Creating the IS, both the programming and the creation of documentation and the human context of use, if any. 5. Overall Picture This section discusses the analyses above. Especially, but not only, which aspects are most and least important to the author of the book, based on your aspectual analyses above. Marking Those who print double-sided will gain a couple of extra marks. This is to indicate that what is taught on this module is not just theory, hut is supposed to be put into practice and to add to responsibility in our ISD and elsewhere. Being environmentally responsible in lots of small ways (such as printing double-sided) is one important aspect of ISD project overall (think: which one?). Criteria that will be taken into account in marking this Assignment include (but are not restricted to): » understanding of the aspects, and to what extent the aspects are well- covered » relevance and quality of discussion of aspects of the passage » correct identification of ISD activity The rules for obtaining Distinction, Pass, Fail are not strictly defined, and will depend on judgment. It is very difficult to define what is required, but, the following guidelines may be useful to both student and marker, but they must be read with common sense: » A Distinction may be obtained if the student demonstrates excellent understanding of the kernel meanings and norms of all aspects, shows very good discussion of why each aspect is assigned, especially where it is not immediately clear which aspect is appropriate, shows that they have thoroughly grasped the notion of aspects in general, and demonstrates good ability to apply this understanding in a natural (intuitive) way to the topic of the assignment in a diverse manner (e.g. a range of different types of passages). In the main, this understanding will be demonstrated by discussion of the passages, and the range of passages selected. Understanding can also be demonstrated by extra discussion e.g. that refers to other literature or compares with phenomena drawn from everyday life. Of course, an adequate number of passages must be examined, and the ISD activities must be discussed appropriately. » A Pass might occur if the student demonstrates industry and reasonable understanding of aspects and aspectual analysis of ISD activities referred to in a reasonable selection of passages. This will be demonstrated by reasonable understanding of aspects and ISD activities applied to the required number of passages. » A Fail might occur if the student demonstrates a lack of industry in understanding the aspects, how to apply them, the analysis of passages, and understanding the activities of ISD: this may be demonstrated by too few passages are identified, if there is consistent wrong assignment of a majority of aspectual kernels without convincing explanation of why they have been thus assigned, if the discussion of aspects of each passage is too cursory, if the ISD activities are consistently wrong. 3. ASSIGNMENT 2: INDIVIDUAL ESSAY This assignment contributes 50% of the marks the student will receive for the module. In this assignment you must write an essay of around 2,500 words, that is a critical reflection on how the material in the module can be applied to your previous experience or learning. TITLE: Applying the Key Issues in Information Systems Development to My Experience This work is to be undertaken by yourself, individually. You must NOT work with others on this assignment (though you are allowed to discuss each others' assignments and offer advice to each other). The essay should cover the following themes: 1. your background experience 2. how aspects apply to this experience 3. how the client-centred approach applies to your experience. 4. Conclusion 3.1 Deliverable for Assignment 2 You should deliver one copy of Assignment 2 to each of the following: » paper copy, printed double-sided, to the Assignment Submission Box » electronic copy to the email address given at the start » electronic copy via Turnitin. This assignment must be all your own work, and must not be shared with others. You must not copy the work of anyone else: no part of the assignment may be a copy from any document, whether amended or not, except that it is a short quotation in quotation marks and a reference is given to where it came from. What gains marks is your own original thinking and your good understanding of what you have learned, and NOT material copied from the lecture notes or others. I suggest you write Assignment 2 with the following sections, for which a guideline is given for how many words are appropriate. The total word count is expected to be 2000-2500 but if you find you need to write more words, that can be accepted as long as you are not writing waffle. Section 1. My Experience (approx 300 words) Describe your experience that is related to any of the four human activities in ISD. This can include either » professional experience you may have had of any ISD activity » amateur experience of any ISD activity » what you have learned in a university course that relates to any ISD activity. For the rest of the report discuss how what you learned in KIISD applies to your experience. If you have more than one of the above experience, you need not discuss all, but may choose one for discussion. If you wish, you may choose a different one to discuss in sections 2 or 3, or the same one for both. Section 2. Aspectual Analysis of Experience (approx 800-1000 words) For the experience you have chosen from section 1, discuss to what extent you followed each of the aspects. For those aspects followed, describe how you followed it and give examples; for aspects not followed, discuss why you did not follow it. You can arrange this either by topic, in which you discuss several aspects, or by aspect, in which you discuss several topics. Example of Topic: --- Start of example: On my course I learned the importance of documenting software we create. This is mainly of the lingual aspect, but it also has a juridical aspect in that all documentation should be appropriate and correct. I learned that there are several kinds of documentation: user documentation, tutorials, reference documentation, maintenance documentation. The fact that there is different documentation for different kinds of people is a social aspect. --- End of example: Example of Aspect: --- Start of example: In my professional experience, the social aspect was very important. This aspect occurred in several places. - The first one was that I learned the importance of good relationships with my colleagues. To achieve this, we would meet every Friday for a meal and football. - The social aspect was also found in our relationship with clients. Sometimes the relationship with clients was purely formal and professional and, though we provided what was required, I feel we could not be creative because of the formality (this was an effect of the social aspect on formative functioning). However with other clients, the relationship was not just professional but also friendly and, with such clients, we delivered more than they had specified (which might be seen as an effect of the social aspect on the ethical). - A third social aspect was found in the roles of the team members. This varied across different projects. In one project I was team leader but in another I was the documenter and recorder. --- End of example: The amount to write for all the topics or aspects is about 800-1000 words Section 3. Application of Client Centred Approach to My Experience (approx 800-1000 words) Here you must read through the Client Centred book and discuss to what extent your experience matched what is contained in each chapter from chapter A4 onwards. (If you no longer have the book, please contact me immediately.) For each chapter in the book, ignoring chapters A1-3, discuss briefly to what extent your chosen experience matched or did not match the message of the chapter. Since this means just over 20 chapters, it means an average of 40-50 words per discussion (some will be longer, some shorter). Example (about right average length): Chapter 4 describes the stages of the Client Centred Method. My course taught me about programming, testing, documentation and user interface. These are the Demonstration, Trustable and Usable System stages. It taught user requirements analysis, which is part of the Holistic Picture. But it did not teach me Skeleton or Saleable Systems nor System in Use. Section 4. Conclusion (100 words) Reflect on what you found in sections 1, 2 and 3. 3.2 Marking Criteria for Assignment 2 Those who print double-sided will gain a couple of extra marks. This is to indicate that what is taught on this module is not just theory, hut is supposed to be put into practice and to add to responsibility in our ISD and elsewhere. Being environmentally responsible in lots of small ways (such as printing double-sided) is one important aspect of ISD project overall (think: which one?). Criteria that will be taken into account in marking Assignment 2 include (but are not restricted to): List 1: » Learning from all parts of module » That the student has internalised what they have learned » Significance of learning: widening, deepening, undergirding (i.e. more than learning mere facts, rules or theories) » Understands both aspects and Client Centred well » Ability to apply to own experience » Openness to new approaches » Self-awareness, self-reflection, self-critique The rules for obtaining Distinction, Pass, Fail are not strictly defined, and will depend on judgment. It is very difficult to define what is required, but, the following guidelines may be useful to both student and marker, but they must be read with common sense: » A Distinction may be obtained if the student demonstrates excellent understanding and ability to apply, in creative and imaginative ways, with full self-awareness and self-reflection. » A Pass can be obtained as long as the student demonstrates they have learned aspects and Client Centred but their application is unimaginative and routine, and their understanding is not strong. » A Fail might be obtained if the student shows little interest in the module's content and that little work has been done, if they misunderstand aspects, cannot apply them, and/or cannot understand Client Centred. 4. CONCLUSION These two assignments are designed not just to assess your learning during the module, but to give you actual practice at aspectual analysis, understanding a topic in ISD in detail, and reflection on your own experience. They are designed to ensure that, as far as you wish to, you can take away with you when you leave the course, something that will be of value to you in the future. I wish you every success as you undertake these assignments. Andrew Basden. Professor of Human Factors & Philosophy in Information Systems. APPENDIX 1 - ADVICE ON WRITING MASTERS ASSIGNMENT Writing a Masters assignment is like weaving cloth with a good pattern. Think of a master weaver at work: 1 He designs a good pattern, 2 selects threads of just the right colour and material, 3 which he has obtained from someone else, with either money or thanks, and for which he is willing to give credit, 4 He understands well how the different kinds of thread behave in cloth and in the weaving process, 5 and then he weaves them with skill so that the resulting cloth is as good as possible 6 but he is able to tell (with his expert eye) what is very good and what is flawed (like twists, knots and foreign bodies in the threads, and where he has woven the thread less well than he might wish) and why they are good or flawed and what should be done to prevent or overcome the flaws. This is what one would expect of a master weaver of good cloth. Writing an assignment of masters quality is like weaving good, well- patterned cloth. The assignment must demonstrate: 1 that the majority is a product of your own thinking, not that of somebody else's 2 that where you use pieces of other people's thinking you do so intelligently and appropriately, selecting what is relevant and leaving out what is not relevant 3 that where you use somebody else's thinking you reference them explicitly, to give due credit to them 4 that you have fully understood the you are writing about 5 that you have been able to manipulate and use what you have understood 6 that you can view what you have written about critically, knowing what is really good and what is poor, rather than just accepting things as they are. If you want, you can find direct similarities between the two cases: 1 It is all your own design overall. You need to show what *you* learned and in what ways *you* found it valuable and will use it. 2 The threads you use are the material you learned on the module and what you have read in books and papers, and you have selected them well. For example, in the case of 'What I Learned', the threads would be pieces from CCM, KBS, aspects, ISD, aspectual analysis, and anything else you read e.g. about programming. 3 Stealing threads is like passing off text or ideas from others as though they were your own. You must give due credit. For example, each piece you refer to, you say where it came from. 4 The threads you use, which are pieces of other people's thinking and what you learned on the module; you understand how well they will work in the assignment you are 'weaving'. So, for example, instead of writing down all the detail of the seven stages of CCM, you just name the stages and, in your own words, give one sentence about why each stage is important. 5 The way you use pieces of other people's thinking to make your argument and support your thought is expert and appropriate. This is the reason I asked students to tell 'How I intend to apply what I learned'. 6 The section 'In What Ways I Found Valuable' gives scope for discussing this kind of thing. Things or real interest or value are like the really good bits of weaving. Things like twists, knots or foreign bodies in threads are like logical inconsistencies or inappropriateness in pieces from others are, and things like flaws in weaving are things like places where you do not fully understand the coursework is; it is 'ok' to say "I did not understand xxx because of ...". All of these get marks in a Masters assignment. You get marks for: 1 Overall structure of your thought and the logical flow and feel of your argument 2 Intelligent selection of material to support that thought and argument 3 Good referencing and givig due to people 4 Showing you understand the material that you are writing about; this is shown when you put it in your own words, when you apply it correctly to examples from your own experience that were not made on the course, or express links between issues that were not made in the course, 5 Intelligent discussion of how the ideas you learned can be applied, and especially how you intend to apply them, and referring them to what you wrote about your background. 6 Making appropriate critical comments on the pieces from the course or other work. Or explaining *why* you found things valuable or interesting. APPENDIX 2 - HOW TO REFERENCE Referencing means that you make very clear the source of every piece of content that you obtain from a source other than yourself (this includes the lecture notes and the Client Centred book). There are at least two reasons for referencing: » The source of ideas that you use deserves to get the credit for those ideas. To take credit for good ideas that someone else has given you is unjust. To do so for purposes of getting extra marks that you do not deserve is cheating, and is called plagiarism. » The reader might find what you write interesting, and wish to explore some of the ideas further. The reference you give tells the reader where to search the ideas. With these reasons in mind, there are two parts to referencing: » The Citations in your text, which indicating where each idea in your text that is from somewhere else comes from; this is usually done by giving the name of the author(s) of the ideas plus the date they were written and possibly the page number, within your text. It tells the reader the source of the idea. Examples: » "A Kleinian approach concerns itself not just with the structure of data or communications, but with its meaning and underlying world- view [Truex, Baskerville & Klein, 1999]." - reference tacked on to idea in brackets » "The reason Truex, Baskerville & Klein [1999] stress self-reference seems to be a concern to overcome conservatism and unwarranted caution in face of external pressures." - authors of reference used as part of text of sentence » The Reference List, which is an organised list containing references for of all your citations. Each reference comprises all the details needed to let the reader locate the idea you have cited. The reference contains: names of authors, date, title of article, and details of where the article may be found. See below. Example: » TRUEX DP, BASKERVILLE R & KLEIN HK (1999) Growing Systems in Emergent Organizations. Communications of the ACM, 42, 117-123. Referencing is essential to a dissertation, and to an assignment for a Masters module, because it shows that you have done good work in finding out other people's ideas that are relevant to yours. Now in more detail ... Types of Literature Appropriate To Each Part There are at least the following types of literature which are appropriate to different parts of dissertation. Books: - Academic monograph books, such as 'The Tacit Dimension' by M. Polanyi; these are books whose purpose is to introduce and discuss new ideas. Usually good for LR. - Textbooks: these are academic, but are intended to teach existing ideas rather than introduce and discuss new ideas. Most course texts are of this kind. - Reference books (encyclopaedias, dictionaries, etc.) - Factual stories or narrative books: For example, a book that tells what happened in the London Ambulance System IS disaster. These are good as literature source. - Company reports. - Government documents. Articles: - Academic journal papers, such as Int. J. Human-Computer Studies (in library); these are articles intended to introduce and discuss new ideas. Usually good for LR. - Professional journals; these provide serious, reflective material which is news, comment and opinion. Usually good for Introduction. - Magazines: these contain lighter articles. Usually good only as Literature Sources for primary research. - Newspapers: Internet Sources: - Web pages, sites: these can be used in Introduction and as Literature Sources, but should hardly ever be used in LR. - Emails: these can be used as sources for primary research. Other Media: - Radio, TV, Video clips (transcripts of). Citing in Text There are various ways to cite in text, and you can use any you wish as long as you are consistent. But I suggest cite by Author(s) plus Date. Here is an example: "There is a bewildering diversity of philosophies from which to choose and different ones are appealed to from within different I.S. disciplines. For example, in artificial intelligence, appeals have been made to the rationalist Leibniz (Brachman and Levesque, 1985) and the neo-positivist Brentano (Newell, 1982), in human factors appeals have been made to the existentialist Heidegger (Winograd and Flores, 1986), and recently the information systems community has appealed to the critical theorist Habermas (Lyytinen and Klein, 1985). Klein and Myers (1999) have examined I.S. research by reference to hermeneutic philosophy and phenomenology. While such diversity can be fruitful, our problem is that ISD, as the bridge between technology and its use, must concern itself with four major areas - usage and impact, process of development, the shape that technologies assume, and perspectives held on information systems in general (Basden, 2001). If the philosophies appealed to do not cohere, then ISD is hindered, for example, when positivistically inspired technologies are found inappropriate in the human context of use. Burrell and Morgan (1979) have argued for incommensurability between paradigms in research - the very research that generates the technologies, methodologies, theories and models that we use in I.S. While others (e.g. Lee, 1991; Willmott, 1993) have argued that this may be overcome in the practical research arena, incommensurability remains a problem (Falconer and Mackay, 1999)." Notice: - Always use surnames. - Sometimes names are part of the sentence, as in "Klein and Myers (1999) have examined I.S. research ..." Here I am using the authors as people. The reference is made by the date in brackets immediately after the name. - Sometimes names are not part of the sentence, as in "... has appealed to the critical theorist Habermas (Lyytinen and Klein, 1985)" The authors are not being used as people, so the reference in brackets must have author(s), then comma, then date. - Single author e.g. "(Basden, 2001)" - Multiple authors for one paper: link by commas with 'and' before final one, e.g. "(Lyytinen and Klein, 1985)" - Multiple references in single brackets: separate the references by semicolon, e.g. "(Lee, 1991; Willmott, 1993)" In e.g. company reports, government documents and web pages it might not be known who the author is. In that case, use the name of the organisation as author. e.g. "(DEFRA, 2006)" Reference Lists Reference lists occur at the end of the document. They list every reference you have made in the document, and no more. So every reference in the list should be cited at least once in the document, and every citation in the document must be included as a reference in this list. Books: Give the following in order: Author(s), Date, Title of book, Country and city of publisher, Publisher. e.g. Landauer, T. K. (1996). The trouble with computers: Usefulness, usability and productivity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books. Winograd, T., & Flores, F. (1986). Understanding computers and cognition: A new foundation for design. Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley. Dumas, J. S., & Redish, J. C. (1999). A practical guide to usability testing (2nd ed). Exeter, England: Intellect. Theses: As book, but publisher is a University. e.g. Kane, S. C. (2006). Multi-aspectual interview technique. PhD Thesis, University of Salford, U.K. Papers in journals, Magazine articles, etc.: Give the following, in order: Author(s), Date, Title of Paper, Name of Journal, Volume number, Part number (usually in brackets, if available), Page Numbers. e.g. Winograd, T. (2006). Designing a new foundation for design. Communications of the ACM, 49(5), 71-73. Basden, A., Brown, A. J., Tetlow, S. D. A., & Hibberd, P. R. (1996). Design of a user interface for a knowledge refinement tool. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 45, 157-183. Chapters in Edited Books (which contain collections of chapters by different authors): Give the following in order: Author(s) of Chapter, Date of book, Title of Chapter, Page numbers, "in", Editor(s) of Book, "(ed.)", Country and city of publisher, Publisher. e.g. Mitev, N. N. (2001). The social construction of IS failure: symmetry, the sociology of translation and politics. pp.17-34 in A. Adam, D. Howcroft, H. Richardson, & B. Robinson (Eds.), Re-)defining critical research in information systems. Salford, England: University of Salford. Papers in Conference Proceedings: As Chapter in book, but with name of ocnference: e.g. Castell, A. C., Basden, A., Erdos, G., Barrows, P., & Brandon, P. S. (1992). Knowledge based systems in use: A case study. In British Computer Society Specialist Group for Knowledge Based Systems, Proceedings from Expert Systems 92 (Applications Stream). Swindon, England: British Computer Society. Jones, G. O., & Basden, A. (2004). Using Dooyeweerd's philosophy to guide the process of stakeholder engagement in ISD. pp. 1-19 in M. J. de Vries, B. Bergvall-KÃ¥reborn, & S. Strijbos (Eds.), Interdisciplinarity and the integration of knowledge: Proceedings of the 10th annual working conference of CPTS, 19-24 April 2004 . Amersfoort, Netherlands: Centre for Philosophy, Technology and Social Systems. Web pages: Give the following, in order: Author(s) of web page, Date written, Title of web page, Full URL, Date Accessed. National Cancer Institute. (2005). Evidence-based guidelines on web design and usability issues. Retrieved October 19, 2005, from http://usability.gov/guidelines/ Copyright (c) Andrew Basden. 17 February 2009, 12 March 2009, 22 July 2009, 12 October 2009, 26 October 2009, 30 October 2009, 18 November 2009, 18 February 2010, 14 October 2010, 25 February 2011, 6 March 2012, 5 July 2012.